BAKU

Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR plans to boost the annual capacity of its Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) in Turkey to 11.5 million tonnes, a SOCAR Turkey senior official said.

The 200,000-barrel-per-day STAR refinery controlled by SOCAR was launched in 2018.

The facility on Turkey’s Aegean coast processed 10.5 million tonnes of oil in 2020.

“In 2021, the (production) plan is 11 million tonnes of oil and in the coming years, we plan to raise this level to 11.5 million tonnes,” Anar Mammadov, SOCAR Turkey Refining and Petrochemical Business Unit president, Azerbaijan’s CBC TV channel.

Mammadov said that the increase would be achieved without any additional capital investment, but at the expense of the existing facilities, existing installations at the plant, optimisation of the production process and the introduction of digital technologies.

The $6.3-billion refinery is designed to process such oil grades as Azeri Light, Kerkuk, Urals and other grades.

Last year STAR reduced its purchases of Russia’s Urals oil. The decision followed a sharp fall in Russia’s seaborne oil exports from Western ports, traders said.

The refinery was increasingly buying Iraqi Basra oil and Norway’s Johan Sverdrup, both similar to the Russian grade in quality, as well as lighter Kazakh CPC Blend oil.

The refinery’s activities made it possible to provide the Petkim petrochemical complex with raw materials and created conditions for SOCAR to enter the Mediterranean market with its diesel fuel and jet fuel, as well as raw materials for the chemical industry.

The facility supplies feedstock to Petkim to help cut Turkey’s dependence on imports of refined oil products. It is designed to boost the country’s refining capacity by 25-30 percent.

In Azerbaijan, SOCAR owns and manages the Baku Oil Refinery, which produces 15 different petroleum products, including gasoline, aviation kerosene, diesel fuel, naphtha, petroleum coke, and others. The sole refinery in the oil-rich country meets the nation’s entire demand for petroleum products and exports 45 percent of its petroleum products.